There has been and continues to be a need for products having either a low fat content or no fat at all. This need has been demonstrated by the recent market introduction of a variety of fat-free products, including fat-free cakes, fat-free and low fat frozen desserts, and ice creams, and fat-free pourable salad dressings.
Mayonnaise, and mayonnaise-like dressings typically contain high amounts of fat. For example, real mayonnaise, contains about 80% fat or 11 g of fat per typical one tablespoon (14 g) serving. The so called "light" mayonnaise products which have been marketed in recent years also contain approximately 36% fat or 5 g of fat per one tablespoon serving. These products typically employ starch as thickeners and texturizers.
Most recently, there has been significant interest in oil-free mayonnaise-like dressing, or what is referred to in the art as spoonable dressings. In order to meet the claim of being fat-free, the products must contain less than 0.5 g of fat per tablespoon (14 g) serving.
However, as is well known to those skilled in the art, there are major problems associated with the production of acceptable fat-free or low fat mayonnaise-like dressings, including the need to impart the creamy mouthfeel associated with the high fat content of real mayonnaise, and the lack of opacity normally associated with those products which contain 3% fat or less.
The patent literature describes several approaches to the production of fat-free and low fat products. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,287, describes a water-dispersible macrocolloid of whey protein having a mean particle size distribution ranging from about 0.1 to 2.0 microns. The patent further specifies that the total number of particles exceeding 3.0 microns in diameter should be less than 2%. The production of mayonnaise dressings using the teachings of this patent have between 160 and 120 calories per 100 g, about 14% protein and 2% fat.
However, as is also well known to those familiar with the art, protein-containing products are not sufficiently stable and cannot provide the shelf-life requirements of such products and the low pH of the same which is typically about 3.8. In addition, protein-based products of this type also exhibit flavor problems and involve the use of expensive ingredients. U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,166, describes the use of converted starches as fat or oil replacers in products such as mayonnaise. However, as set forth therein, the starches used must be cooked prior to their utilization and are effective only partially as fat replacers in products such as mayonnaise.